5 Interior Design Tips for the Summer

5 Interior Design Tips for the Summer

Summer is the season to let the interior design of your home shine. It is the season of whimsy, a time to act on those fanciful decorating ideas that you’ve been concocting over the autumn, winter, and spring months. It’s the season when family and friends visit from across the world, providing you with the opportunity to show your home with pride. It is also a time to sit in solace, with a good book and a glass of wine while the summer breeze blows through your windows and caresses your cheek. Your home is your permanent place of residence but it can also be your summer retreat. Create a midsummer night’s dream by incorporating the following concepts of interior design.

Interior Design & Decorating Concepts to Celebrate the Season of Summer

1. Bring in the Bright Colors

This is the season to release your color inhibitions. For a dramatic start, apply a fresh coat of paint to your walls, selecting a color scheme that conveys the season to you. Yellows, greens, blues and varying pastel tones will give your space an undeniable lift. Consider a different color in each room for added effect. Provide your walls with an additional splash of color by hanging paintings and prints that speak to the season, such as beach, sea, and garden scenes. Next, select colorful accent pieces to decorate your end-tables, counter-tops, and mantles. When doing so, don’t be afraid to use bright contrasting colors as they will make a vibrant impact in your home. For a more in-depth look at how to add color to your home, view this article.

2. Light Linens and Loose Fitting Slipcovers

It is common to use lighter linens on your bedding for added comfort during warm summer months. The textile made from the cellulose fibers of the flax plant provides for a cool and fresh feel in the heat. However, linens add an undeniable aesthetic touch as well, one that will be appreciated by you and your guests. With bright white linens covering your beds and draping from the hangers in your bathrooms you will feel comfortable leaving the doors wide open to these normally closed spaces. You will also want to create the same bright and billowy effect in your living room. Shabby chic (loose fitting) slipcovers on your sofa, love seat, and lounge chairs will make this happen as will the use of linen drapery on your windows.

3. Summer-Themed Throw Pillows

Throw pillows can transform your rooms from the moment they land on your sofas, seats, and beds. During the summer, select throw pillows that reflect the season. Patterns that incorporate bold colors, floral designs, and especially nautical themes will set the tone. Place them playfully from room to room to create a consistent theme that shows guests that you are conscious of the season.

4. Decorate Your Home with Seasonal Flora

Take full-advantage of the summer by bringing in floral accents and centerpieces that feature flowers and ornamental plants that thrive during the season. You will have access to a fair share of flora that respond well to your region during the early summer. For example, peonies are very popular right now, and the West Coast of British Columbia is known to have some of the best peony growers in Canada. Wherever you reside, a bounty of floral riches awaits you upon a simple visit to your local farmers’ market. Don’t have the time to hunt down and create your own arrangements during the season? No problem, simply bring in a floral decorating team to do the job. Nothing will have quite the same impact on the sight and scent of your home better than fresh floral displays.

5. Let the Sun Shine In

It would be a shame to integrate any of the above interior design concepts without shining a healthy dose of natural light on them. In the summertime, there is plenty of it. Take full advantage of the sun’s prominence in the months of June, July and August by paying special attention to the functional elements of your window fashions. Custom motorized blinds can installed and timed to allow in the optimal amount of natural light as the sun follows its seasonal path in the sky. The result is a bright, vibrant, yet soothing atmosphere that only the summer can bring.

Is your home in the Greater Vancouver area? Contact us. We can create the summer scene you’re looking for.